Gallery II

Selinger's Monuments in France and Israel

Selinger has won various competitions for the construction of monuments to the Holocaust. He works in granite and marble in the style of the old masters. Actual color is reddish.

Drancy, now a small town between downtown Paris and Charles de Gaulle Airport was the site for the round-up of the French Jews before their deportation to Auschwitz. 77,000 French Jews were deported. The other major site was the Vel d'hiver, a velodrome in Paris, now destroyed.

Selinger's monument is based on a reconceptualization of Rodin's "Gates of Hell." Seven steps bring the visitor to the entrance of the monument. The steps symbolize the days of the week. The two portals are the "Gates of Hell" with inscriptions in French and Hebrew. The center figural work shows ten Jews, a "minyan" (ten Jews are needed to pray in a synagogue service) in a whirlwind, a metaphor for the Holocaust. Figures are both Orthodox and secular, suggesting how the Nazis made no distinctions as to who was a Jew.

The inscription on the monument says: "From this place, French Jews were deported to concentration camps and to death. Nearly 100,000 Jewish men, women and children were interned here before deportation to Auschwitz. Only 1,518 returned. 256 were shot as hostages." The quote on the second portal is from the Hebrew Bible, Book of Lamentations: "Look and See, for it is a sadness comparable to my sadness."

The Monument to the Resistance is a testament to the resistance of the Free French who continued their struggle with Allied forces and with the underground organizations or partisans. La Corneuve is at the end of one of the northern METRO lines in Paris.

Monument to Deportation

Drancy - Monument to Deportation, Front

Drancy - Monument to Deportation, Center Front

Drancy - Monument to Deportation, Center

Drancy - Monument to Deportation, Center Rear

Drancy - Monument to Deportation, Center Rear

Drancy - Monument to Deportation, Center Rear

Drancy - Monument to Deportation, Center Rear

Drancy - Monument to Deportation, Center Rear

Drancy - Monument to Deportation-Gate of Hell

Drancy - Monument to Deportation-Gate of Hell

Drancy - Monument to Deportation

Drancy - Monument to Deportation, Center

Drancy - Monument to Deportation-Gate of Hell(R)

Drancy - Monument to Deportation-Gate of Hell(L)

Shema Yisrael

Shema Yisrael (Detail)

Monument to the Resistance at La Corneuve

Monument to the Resistance at La Corneuve

Monument to the Resistance at La Corneuve

Monument to the Resistance at La Corneuve (Current)

Monument to the Resistance at La Corneuve

Monument at Yad Vashem

Monument at Yad Vashem

Marquette for Drancy Monument

Marquette for Drancy Monument

Marquette for Drancy Monument

Marquette: Project Last Tears for the Jews

Marquette for Righteous Gentiles Yad Vashem

The memorial to the Deportation in Tremblay-en France near Paris, executed in bronze.

Dedication of monument in BOSEN, near Saarbrucken, Germany, Entitled "The Requiem to Jews of Germany". Photos by Ruth Selinger.

Dedication of monument in BOSEN, near Saarbrucken, Germany, Entitled "The Requiem to Jews of Germany". Photos by Ruth Selinger.

Dedication of monument in BOSEN, near Saarbrucken, Germany, Entitled "The Requiem to Jews of Germany". Photos by Ruth Selinger.